Walshaw Dean Reservoirs are three reservoirs situated above

Hebden Bridge Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, England. It is west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden Water. The town is the largest ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. They are between Hebden Bridge and Top Withins, a ruined farmhouse near

Haworth Haworth () is a village in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines, south-west of Keighley, west of Bradford and east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope. Nearby villages includ ...

, the reputed inspiration for "

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...

" in the novel of the same name by

Emily Brontë Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, ''Wuthering Heights'', now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poet ...

Walshaw Dean Middle and Upper Reservoir - geograph

The reservoirs' catchments are dominated by

peatland A mire, peatland, or quagmire is a wetland area dominated by living peat-forming plants. Mires arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia. All types ...

habitats. The reservoirs drain into the

Calder Valley Calder is a Scottish name and may refer to: People *Calder (surname) *Calder baronets, two baronetcies created for people with the surname Calder *Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the American sculptor known for his mobiles, son of Alexander Stirlin ...

. On 19 May 1989 Walshaw Dean Lodge entered the

UK Weather Records The United Kingdom weather records show the most extreme weather ever recorded in the United Kingdom, such as temperature, wind speed, and rainfall records. Reliable temperature records for the whole of the United Kingdom go back to about 1880. ...

with the ''Highest 120-min total''

rainfall Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

at 193 mm; however, the Met Office expresses 'reservations' about this record.

History

To cope with the growing population of Halifax, construction of the reservoirs was put out to tender by Halifax Corporation. The winning bid, for , was submitted by Enoch Tempest. To house the

navvies Navvy, a clipping of navigator ( UK) or navigational engineer ( US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and eart ...

working on construction a temporary shanty town named Dawson City was built, with a narrow-gauge railway, Blake Dean Railway, to transport navvies and construction materials to the sites of the reservoirs.

Access

The reservoirs are on the

Pennine Way The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail stretches for from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kir ...

References

External links

Geography of Calderdale Reservoirs in West Yorkshire {{WestYorkshire-geo-stub